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This semester, when I signed up for a creative writing-fiction workshop, I thought: this should be interesting. It’ll make me carve out time to do some writing. The way I used to when I was in the MFA. The way I’d draft a few stories a semester. The way I’d write and scrap things and then rewrite.

The assignments for this writing workshop look nothing like the MFA workshop I was in. We have weekly writing prompts, which 75% of the time I’ve used to challenge myself to write a full loop of a story, even if it’s only 5 – 6 pages (or a flash piece at 2 – 3). Then there were weekly readings and the requisite two full length stories…

I have two writing prompts left to respond to for the semester, which could yield anywhere between 2 – 10 more pages. But sum total, the number of pages of writing I have turned in for this one course so far hit 73 pages this week. 73 pages of drafts that have been revised to some degree–at least enough to turn them in. Not 73 total crap pages, but 73 turn-in-able pages. And 2 – 10 more to go.

Creative writing seminar, you have forced me to carve out time to do more writing indeed. And who knew I’d become such a fan of writing prompts? I usually disobey them immediately, but they give me something to rebel against. And the few times I follow them, I’m intrigued by the newness they add to my tone/plot formation/characters. I highly recommend Brian Kiteley’s The 3 A.M. Epiphany.